Today, we take our mission mainstream by partnering with the world’s largest beauty company, L’Oréal.

While I am not getting any free L’Oréal product samples nor am I getting a makeover to go from my jeans, bootsand brightly colored hair to look magazine-worthy… what L’Oréal and Women 2.0 are doing is bringing together our brands and networks to jumpstart a generation of beauty related startups pushing the envelope of innovation.

Not your stereotypical beauty company, L’Oréal thinks out of the box like we do at Women 2.0. You may have heard about their L’Oréal Next Generation Awards and The Next Lab – all innovative programs from a company whose core competency is in the production and distribution of branded makeup products globally. We are thrilled to partner with L’Oréal on their initiatives.

While being important consumers, L’Oréal recognizes that the next generation of innovation will come from us – the women! L’oreal will sponsor Women 2.0’s Founder Friday in San Francisco in October and the new launch of Founder Friday in Boston.

Most exciting for all you founders – L’Oréal will select 1 out of 10 finalist companies on stage at PITCH NYC Conference and Competition and award them with a $25,000 cash prize along with one year mentoring from L’Oréal executives, introductions to VC partners and L’Oréal brand leads for testing opportunities.

Honestly, I’m pumped. Women 2.0’s brand represents strong achieving women, all of you reading this post, and we are thrilled that L’Oréal recognizes and respects what we stand for.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.

About the guest blogger: Shaherose Charania is the Co-Founder and CEO of Women 2.0. She is passionate about open innovation in mobile and telephony startups. She is currently running Founder Labs a pre-team, pre-idea incubator for new mobile startups. Follow her on Twitter at @shaherose.